As much as I love the coast and ocean I love sunshine more and thus choose to live just inland (~9 miles). We get some of the normal marine layer but it burns off by 10:00 am and we enjoy lots of sunshine. If you choose the location well you also get to enjoy the cooling breeze in the late afternoon. During the summer we're 15F warmer than right on the coast but we have many many more weeks of solid sunshine than the coast. Now if you're a surfer or go the beach many times a week than perhaps it worth living within walking/biking distance.
Now another 5 miles inland and it's another story. Might as well pick up and live in AZ
